A mission in India

The history of Christianity in India and the history of missions in India are not coterminous. Unlike some regions of the world to which Christianity was first introduced by Western missionaries, India has a history of Christian presence that extends beyond the limits of missionary activity. Although Christianity did not originate on the sub-continent of India, as the religions of the Buddhists, the Jains, and the Sikhs, neither was it imported by Western missionaries. Even the earliest Western visitors report the existence of Christian congregations in India. When Western missionaries came to India, they found that Christianity already existed in some parts of this remote land. Whereas Christianity was surely encouraged and advanced by the missionaries, it was not introduced by them.